


If You're Looking For a Sign

by bettycooperthefirst



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 22:11:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16752403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bettycooperthefirst/pseuds/bettycooperthefirst
Summary: Betty is supposed to go on a blind date, but when he doesn't show, someone else steps in in his place.





	If You're Looking For a Sign

Betty didn’t even want to go on the blind date that Veronica had been prepping her for all week. The dating world wasn’t worth it- she was sick and tired of kissing so many frogs and she was starting to think there was no prince. If she had to sit through another meal where some pretentious man took over the conversation to discuss his social climb up the work ladder or go off on a tangent about how he was a sensitive painter- if she had to suffer through another date where the grown adult sitting across from her treated her like a piece of meat- she might just walk out of the restaurant and never date again. It seemed like that was what the universe wanted. All signs were pointing to Betty never finding a good guy.

 

But Ronnie had been raving about this guy for weeks now, so Betty had sighed and put on a nice skirt, made her hair look presentable and applied some pink lipstick. She would give it one last shot and so help her god, if this one was a dud, she would probably lose her mind. 

 

Walking up to the Italian restaurant where they were supposed to meet, she smiled at the hostess, trying to convince herself that it would be a good situation. _Smiling releases endorphins to make you actually happy. I am happy right now._

 

She was a few minutes early and decided to sit down at a table and wait there. She had the guys number, so she sent him a quick message to let him know and took a look at the drink menu.

 

“Water?” A waiter appeared next to her and she nodded and thanked him as he poured her a glass. “Waiting on someone?”

 

Betty looked at her watch. 6:00 sharp. “He should be here any minute.” The waiter nodded in understanding. But he wasn’t there any minute. He wasn’t there 20 minutes later and he wasn’t responding to her texts, but Betty had ordered a lemonade and knew deep down, somewhere in the pit of her stomach, that if she paid for it and left, she’d walk out the door and emotionally close herself off. The last straw in a long line of crappy dates and crappy guys. She felt her chest tightening as she ran through her head the possible reasons he was late.

 

_Stuck in traffic. It is a Friday night- traffic is busy, parking can be rough._

 

_Maybe his car wouldn’t start- but then why didn’t he let her know? The excuses poured in as the clock ticked ahead._

 

_A family emergency._

_A personal emergency._

_A veterinary emergency._

 

The couple one table over had eaten their meal and were starting to glance her way. Betty could see it in their eyes that they felt bad for her, this girl sitting alone in a nice restaurant, clearly waiting for someone, having glanced at the door so many times. A group of college aged girls were glancing her way too. Betty had graduated a year ago herself, but these girls looked younger. She saw one girl, all strawberry blonde curls and dark eye makeup, look at her and then talk to her friend and laugh. The girl she spoke to turned around, blatantly looking in Betty’s direction.

 

Betty could imagine the conversation. _Don’t look now but there’s a girl over there who has clearly been stood up. Pathetic. No don’t look now, she’ll know we’re talking about her!_

 

Betty felt a spiral coming on. Her fingers curled into her palm, the way they unconsciously did anytime her anxiety kicked in. She had decided that this date would work out if the universe wanted it to. Well obviously the universe wanted her to sit alone in Vivaldi’s on a Thursday night. Betty looked at the empty chair across from her.

 

_If you’re looking for a sign this is it._

 

Betty started to look around for her waiter when someone suddenly dropped into the seat that had been empty moments before. He had dark, messy hair and smiled at her like he knew her.

 

“Sorry I’m late sweetheart. Got caught up in traffic and then couldn’t find parking. I hope I didn’t worry you.” He gave her a sincere look of apology, taking off his jacket and putting it over the back of the chair.

 

She blinked back at him in surprise. “Excuse me?”

 

The boy opened his eyes a little bit wider, looking at her like he needed her to understand something, as he continued. “Making you wait on me like that. So rude. Can you forgive me?”

 

Betty had seen pictures of the guy she was supposed to be meeting tonight. He had red hair, an all American type. This wasn’t him. So who was this boy across from her, still smiling at her, waiting for a response?

 

She only had a split second to process all of this make a decision.

 

“That’s okay.” She said carefully. “I forgive you.”

 

The boy across from her broke into a bigger smile and Betty felt the eyes of the girls from the other table fade off of her and find something else to talk about. The couple one table over ordered their dessert, seemingly moving on from their glances in Betty’s direction. She let out a small sigh of relief as her fingers stretched back out from her palm.

 

The boy continued to smile. “Saw you sitting here the last 20 minutes and got worried.”

 

“People were staring at me. Those girls at that back table were whispering.” She nodded to where the girls had just received their second round of drinks.

 

The boy- Jughead- nodded.

“I went to school with them. They feed off of drama like succubus. It’s nothing personal.” He gave her a small smile and she noticed that his eyes smiled too- a calming blue sky to contrast his dark forest of hair. “Still sucks though.” He added. “You don’t have to tell me why you’re here alone. Just wanted to relieve some of the pressure of it.”

 

For whatever reason, she decided to just tell him the truth. “I was stood up.”

 

“Really?” His face showed no indication of what he thought of this.

 

“I didn’t even want to come, but I did, and he didn’t even show. Another failed attempt to be a person in this world.” She didn’t know why she was saying this, she didn’t owe him any explanation and she definitely didn’t need to detail her overall life situation. But there was something about the way his eyes crinkled a little bit when he smiled, the stray curl of hair falling in front of his eyes, his easygoing smile, that made her feel comfortable with him, like he wasn’t going to judge her at all.

 

“Well it sounds to me like this guy blew it big time. How could be possibly stand up…” he trailed off, waiting for her to fill in the blank, and she realized that she hadn’t even introduced herself.

 

“Betty. Betty Cooper.”

 

“Jughead Jones, at your service.” The side of his mouth quirked up in a half smile and he nodded in joking deference. _Cute._ Her mind noted this against her better judgement.

 

“Well Jughead, thanks for stepping in, but you can get back to whatever it was you were doing before my pity party distracted you.”

 

He held up three fingers and ticked them down as he spoke.

“Three things. One: I didn’t come over here out of pity, I came over here because I’ve sat where you’re sitting. Empathy, not pity. Two: I wasn’t doing anything of any importance. Three: Aren’t you hungry?”

 

Betty had eaten a light lunch, knowing she’d be getting a nice dinner tonight. Her stomach had let out a few soft growls already.

 

“Yeah. I am.”

 

There was that smile again. _Infectious._ “Good thing we’re at a restaurant.”

 

Betty ran through her options in her mind. She could get up and go home, scrounge through her fridge to find something edible. Or she could stay here, with this person she knew nothing about, and eat dinner at the restaurant that had been the one thing she’d been looking forward to tonight.

 

“Yes. We are.”

 

Her waiter showed up at that moment and before Betty could say another word, Jughead was speaking again.

 

“A bottle of your finest wine, sir.” He announced with a dramatic flair that made Betty giggle.

 

The server just eyed Jughead suspiciously.

 

“Okay. Two glasses of your cheapest wine, please?” Jughead tried again.

 

The server nodded and turned to Betty. “Are you ready to order?”

 

She’d had twenty minutes to think about what she wanted to eat. She looked at the boy across from her, surprised at the twist the night had taken. Turning back to the server, she ordered her dinner.

 

 

“Okay. Fall Out Boy or Panic! At the Disco?” Jughead said 45 minutes later.

 

“In middle school, Fall Out Boy. 100%.” Betty had eaten all of her food and downed her glass of wine. She felt like she was in a different universe than she had been in and hour ago when she sat down. She and Jughead talked so easily- she’d never been so quickly comfortable with someone in her life. They’d somehow skipped the basics- job, education- and covered topics such as salad v. soup (Jughead argued that soup was the only option), an embarrassing date story of Jughead’s (“to even the playing field”) and a lengthy discussion of Brooklyn 99, before somehow landing on the topic of music they used to listen to between the ages of 12-16.

 

“Favorite Fall Out Boy song?” He asked this like it was the most serious matter he’d ever encountered.

 

“Sugar We’re Goin Down.”

 

Jughead nodded. “Acceptable.”

 

“And your favorite song in middle school was…?”

 

“Mr. Brightside. Still one of my favorites now.”

 

Betty raised her eyebrows. “Do you sit in your room and brood about girls who don’t like you while you listen to it?” She said this knowing full well that she loved the song herself.

 

Jughead groaned and put his hand over his chest.

“That hurt.”

 

Betty laughed, and glanced down at her phone. Veronica was calling her, for the second time in 10 minutes.

 

“I should answer this.”

 

“No worries.” He picked up the dessert menu. How does he still have room after the amount of food he just ate?

 

Betty walked over to entry way of the restaurant where it was a bit quieter and answered the call.

 

“V?”

 

Veronicas voice was laced with concern. “Betty, where are you?”

 

Betty sighed. “I’m at the restaurant. Your golden boy never showed.”

 

“What are you talking about? Which restaurant are you at?”

 

“Vivaldi’s.”

 

“Which Vivaldi’s?”

 

“The one on 2nd.” Betty said this carefully, afraid she already knew where this was going.

 

Veronica let out a loaded sigh.

 

“Archie went to the one on Brady St. He waited there for you for a full half hour.”

 

“I texted him.” Betty remembered. “He didn’t answer.”

 

Veronica rattled off Archie’s number, and Betty checked to find that she’d put it into her phone 1 digit off.

 

“I’m sorry Betty.” Veronica said. “I sent it to you wrong, and now you’ve sat at that restaurant alone for an hour. Archie went home but I can let him know about the mix up. Call him, I’m sure he’d still like to meet up with you.”

 

“Actually V,” Betty paused, looking back at the table to see Jughead looking over the dessert menu. “I had the best night I’ve had in a long time, even without a date.”

 

“Alone in a fancy restaurant?”

 

She watched as Jughead furrowed his brow, looking at the cake page. “With a really great guy who sat down with me when Archie didn’t show.”

 

As she finished her call with Veronica and made her way back to her chair, she realized that she might have gone on a fantastic date tonight after all. _But did Jughead think of this as a date? Or was this just a new friendship to him?_

 

As she sat down across from him, she wasn’t sure how to find out.

 

“Everything alright?”

 

“EVerything’s great.” She suddenly felt some nerves pooling back in her chest.

 

Jughead continued.

“So I’m thinking the tiramisu. What do you think?”

 

“I’d get tiramisu too.”

 

Jughead shook a stray curl of hair out of his face and smiled. “It’s the best isn’t it?”

 

The waiter that Betty had had all night approached their table with a look of irritation on his face. He gave Jughead a pointed look as he said “Can I interest you in dessert?”

 

“I’m going for some tiramisu, please.” Jughead said it cheerfully, ignoring the look on the other boys face.

 

“Are you alright?” Betty said cautiously. The waiters demeanor had been going downhill over the past hour and she wasn’t sure why.

 

“Oh I’m fine.” He plastered on a clearly false grin. “We’re just a little short staffed tonight. A guy went on break an hour ago never clocked back in.” He shot daggers at Jughead, who just smiled in return.

 

“That’s unfortunate.” Jughead said. “I’m sure he’ll make it up to you somehow.”

 

“Jughead.” The waiter sighed, as Betty put the pieces together. “C’mon man, I gave you your hour, but Toni’s gonna be back soon and when she finds you sitting out here instead of working she’s going to lose her mind.”

 

“Wait a minute.” Betty interrupted. “You work here?”

 

Jughead nodded.

 

“And you’re supposed to be working right now?”

 

“It’s fine, it’s a slow night.” Looking around the room, Betty could see that this was true. “And Sweet Pea here is my best friend in the world so I cut him a deal.”

 

Sweet Pea snorted. “A shitty deal.”

 

“Calm down. You’re serving us and one other table. Well worth my night’s pay.”

 

“I don’t get much pay if you don’t clock back in.” The waiter- Sweet Pea- shot back.

 

Betty was even more confused. “You gave up your nights pay so that you could come sit with me? What if I had told you to screw off?”

 

“I was really hoping you wouldn’t.”

 

“You know, he doesn’t do shit like this.” Sweet Pea said suddenly, turning to put his full attention on Betty.

 

“Sweet Pea-“ Jughead tried to cut in, but Sweet Pea put his hand in front of the other boys face and continued.

 

“He has never missed a shift, never shown up late, never played around. But you came in here and sat down and it was like an alarm went off in his head.” He mimicked an alarm sound. “Pretty girl pretty girl pretty girl.”

 

“Are you trying to embarrass me?” Jughead whisper shouted at his friend.

 

“Yes. I am.” Sweet Pea delivered the words directly to Jughead before turning back to Betty. “This guy has been moaning and groaning for weeks about how the world is crap and then you walk in and he tells me this is it. This is the last chance he’s taking and if the universe-“ Sweet Pea threw his hands in the air at this “he loves talking about the frickin universe- doesn’t want it, then it won’t let it happen. Apparently the universe wanted it, but I need to confirm that with you because our boss is going to be back any minute and this loser is about to lose his job if he doesn’t get back to work. So fuck the universe, do you like my lame ass friend?”

 

She looked at Jughead, the boy who she’d only known for an hour, who apparently thought about the same things she did, who made her laugh, who’s smile made her feel warm inside.

 

As she looked at him, that smile quirked up on one side of his mouth. _If you’re looking for a sign, this is it._

 

“Yeah. I like him.”

 

The smile increased.

“I like you too.”

 

“Adorable.” Betty heard Sweet Pea say. “Now I will pay for your meal if you’ll just exchange numbers and make him come back to work.”


End file.
